There is no reason to terminate the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated. Last week, Turkish officials alleged that Russia’s state-owned corporation Rosatom halted the building of the power plant.
On December 1, the Russian media reported that Russia suspended negotiations with Turkey on the Akkuyu project. Earlier, Russia’s Minister of economic development Aleksey Ulyukayev said that the Kremlin had not cancelled the contract. The $20 billion project would be Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
Moscow imposed economic sanctions on Turkey in response to downing a Russian SU-24 fighter jet over Syria by Turkey’s air force on November 24.
Interestingly, in early October Ankara announced that it could reject the Akkuyu project designed by Russian engineers. “If the Russians do not build Mersin Akkuyu then somebody else will come and build it,” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan commented on uncertainties about the joint project amid escalating tensions between the countries.
